"Raoul," Aleia murmured, tossing faintly in her sleep. For a moment it appeared that she would awaken.
"Aleia!" the queen was instantly at her side. Queen Lydia was much disappointed when Aleia returned to her sleep, even stiller than she had been before. It was not the breaking of the spell, only the change to a different. In a moment, the queen dropped to the ground, sleeping just as Aleia was.
"My lady!" a servant exclaimed before, in turn falling asleep on the rug.
Across the land, everyone was falling into a deep sleep. Children at the games, men working in the field, women doing their housework, they all slept where they had been going about their daily lives. Even the animals, horses, cows, everything were sleeping without any movement. If anyone had happened to come along, they would have been very confused. But that was just the thing, there was no one to come. Everyone was sleeping.
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Clash! Clang! Raoul fell into a distinct pattern of fighting. Block, attack, parry, his movements were all fluid and exact. However, he was getting tired. He could not take it much longer. As he lunged to attack, Morwenna moved out of the way, throwing him off balance. Raoul fell to the ground and everything went black.
When he woke up, he felt just as strong as ever, and Morwenna was waiting for him. They fought all day, and then he fell to the ground again. The process repeated itself, over and over again. It was like he was caught in some time loop, consisting only of fighting Morwenna. He soon grew very tired of it. Not physically, of course, every day he was quite revived, but mentally he was growing very wary of it.
He stopped counting after the fifth time. All his life consisted of was sword-fighting. Raoul desperately wished there was some way he could stop it. But he could not hasten the arrival of a hundred years.
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King Ardahn tried furiously to awaken himself. He had managed to save himself enough from the spell to be aware, yet still asleep. It was something like controlling one's dreams, except it was always the same dream, of trying to open his eyes, trying to move, anything. And he could not do it.
Finally, though, he tried, he willed so hard, and he opened his eyes. It stung more than anything else ever had. It felt like his eyelids were being ripped away from his eyes. But he had to do it none the less.
"I see you have finally gained the willpower to rid yourself of that spell," came Morwenna's menacing voice. She spoke to him, but kept her attention on Raoul. They sword-fighting very hard.
"You can do that?" Raoul asked, narrowly missing a blow because of his distraction.
Morwenna smirked. "Don't try it for your princess. A fairy could do it, yes, but not a mere human such as yourself."
The king watched them fight for a moment, before returning to his petitioning Morwenna's spell. "Morwenna, I am truly sorry for what I did. I should have simply trusted that he was good enough for you, but what I did I did out of love. For you. Afterwards, I was so sorry, sorrier than I'd ever been for anything in my life. I wish you would not have alienated yourself from me. You could have borne the sorrow, and came out stronger in the end."
"I did come out stronger, Brother," she said laughing dryly. "Would you not call me stronger? This duel is a hundred years long, and I shall never grow tired!"
"Morwenna...Mother would be sorry to see you like this."
She turned her dark eyes to his. "Mother," she said softly. "Mother has been forgotten since you chose not to use the powers you inherited from her."
"Well, she certainly would not approve of the way you're using them!" the king retorted.
Morwenna remained silent. She never once faltered in her sword movements.
The king knew of only one more way to get through to her. "And do you think he would have wanted you like this, Sister?"
The remark hit home. Morwenna faltered, if only for a moment. But in that moment, Raoul had taken aim squarely at her chest, expecting her to block him, however, she did not. She fell to the ground on her knees. Her angry look changed to that of a frightened child. A few tears of pain fell down her cheeks.
Morwenna looked at the king. "I'm sorry, Brother," she said. "I was wrong."
The king rushed to her. "I can heal you, just hang on!"
She shook her head. "No, it's better this way." For once, Morwenna could be seen as she truly was: a very depressed and alone girl.
"Morwenna, please!" her brother cried out.
She turned her attention to Raoul. "You," she said, "to her...give her a...kiss...it's what I would have wanted from my love, before he died..." She looked around at the sleeping duke and Josh. "I'll wake them up now, so you don't have to carry them back."
Duke Conrad and Josh began to move. They sat up, rubbing their eyes, just as Morwenna fell to the floor. She smiled slightly at King Ardahn, and her eyes closed.
"No!" the king shouted. He wept openly, but there was nothing to be done.
"What's going on?" Josh asked Raoul.
"Morwenna has fallen. She told us how to cure Aleia."
Josh nodded, but still looked confused.
The duke looked very alarmed that Morwenna had died. He started to try to sneak out the door.
"Josh," Raoul said simply. He personally didn't feel like doing anything. Except sleeping maybe.
"Don't try it," Josh said to the duke, grabbing his arms and pulling them behind his back.
In a few minutes the king had regained enough composure to speak to them. "We will return to the castle, awaken Aleia, and the world."
Raoul and Josh nodded.
Then the king turned to the duke. "You, you were working with Morwenna, to try to get the crown. You have been much less than a friend to us, Duke Kevar. I could kill you now, but I will be merciful. You will live in a faraway fortress, and in a manner that will make others repulse you. You shall remain that way until you have learned the meaning of love."
"Me? But I'm a duke!"
"And I am the king! You would do well not to contradict me, Boy."
The duke swallowed.
The king picked up Morwenna. They walked outside, and to their horses. They rode together in silence to the palace.
"I am truly sorry, Sir," Raoul said when they had dismounted again.
King Ardahn just shook his head. "It wasn't even your fault, actually. You expected her to block; she didn't. A mistake. But even then she could have saved herself if she wanted to. She wanted to die, Raoul, and there was nothing you could have done to stop her."
Raoul nodded solemnly.
"I don't feel right, though, going and waking them all up cheerfully while I still have to take care of her. Will you bury her with me? And Josh, lock up the duke."
Both men complied. Within a few hours their jobs were done with; it was time to wake up Aleia. They strode to the room she was sleeping in.
Raoul stood next to her, awkwardly.
"Well, go on!" the king said.
Josh grinned at him.
Raoul slowly leaned over Aleia and gently touched his lips to hers. It quickly became a bit harder.
Aleia's eye-lids fluttered open. She knocked the man kissing her away. Then she saw who it was.
"Raoul! What in the world are you doing!" she asked, coloring a deep red.
Raoul looked embarrassed. "I—uh—"
The queen, along with the servants, were beginning to slowly rouse themselves from their sleep.
"Go ahead and tell her how you feel, Raoul," Josh said. "What's it been? Like a hundred years?"
Raoul glanced around. He bent down on one knee. "Aleia, I confess, I love you. More than I love, well, anything. If your father would consent to it, I would like to ask for your hand in marriage."
Aleia opened her mouth and shut it again. She looked at the king, who smiled and nodded his approval. She smiled.
"Yes," she said softly.
Raoul stood up, grabbed her round the waist, and spun her around. When he put her down again, they looked into each other's eyes, both smiling widely. They leaned in, and this time they didn't have to back away. They kissed on the lips, the embrace lasting quite some time.
When they finally broke apart, they remained close to each other, holding hands tightly. Everyone in the room clapped. Josh raised his eyebrows at Aleia. They both laughed merrily.
"Well, come, we have a wedding to plan!" Queen Lydia said. She always did seem to be planning for something.
The party started to walk out the door. King Ardahn stopped Aleia at the door.
"Aleia, I realize I haven't always been the best father to you. But I am determined to be better at it. I do love you, even I haven't done the best job of showing it."
Aleia smiled and kissed his cheek. "I know," she said. "I love you, too."
Josh was the next one to have something to say.
"Well, congratulations. And remember, you have to name one of your sons after me."
Aleia giggled. "I know, Josh, I know."
Raoul waited for her at the door, smiling.
"I love you," she whispered to him.
"I love you more," he whispered back, kissing her forehead.
She grinned.
They strode out the door together, hand in hand, the future King Raoul and Queen Aleia of Tressar.
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It is finished! I'm kind of sad, I loved this story. But, it is complete now. Thanks so much to all of my reviewers, there's no way I could have finished this so fast without you! Feel free to read any of my other stories. I'm currently writing A Watery Tale, and when I get a bit closer to finishing it, I'm going to start a new story, the summary is in my profile. Oh, and to all my reviewers, story-end party in my profile! I'll have it up for a week. Oh, and one more thing, my alerts aren't working, and if its the same with everyone else, I'm not sure if you got my review replies for last chapter, cause I think they would be effected as well. So if you did review last chapter, thanks!
